Apache Junction, Arizona

A.J.

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Apache Junction, known locally in the Phoenix Valley area as "A.J.", is a real throwback to the days of the old west, but the thing I like best about A.J. is the "attitude" of its inhabitants. (A.J. is nothing, if not attitude.) THAT, more than anything else, is what I have attempted to catch on my photos: A difficult task, to be sure. Many residents of A.J. came out hollering at me when they caught me photographing their property (one said he thought I'd been sent by "the city"), but when I told them what I was trying to do, they laughed till it hurt (thumbs up). (That's the attitude. So is keeping a pile of old tires as lawn decor.)

My daughter found out I was working on a photo chronicle of A.J. and said "It's SO JUNKY!" I said, "Yeah, but it's INTERESTING junk. Where ELSE can you see a rusting refrigerator decorating someone's front yard as a lawn ornament?" I am dismayed that this unique and rustic culture sadly seems to be quickly headed for oblivian. Already, the seeds of modernization and destruction of A.J., as it has been known, have been sown. They're ruining A.J. with new subdivisions of little pink tile-roofed homes that all look just alike, etc. I feel sorry for anyone who looks around traditional A.J., and all they see is "junk".

A.J. is one of the last remaining "civilized" spots on planet Earth where the common man has access to living in an environment of fantastic beauty; awesome mountains surrounding the entire area in a living desert covered with cacti, Palo Verde and Mesquite, Ocotillo, etc.; one of the last places on earth that anyone with just an old rickety mobile home can call home. (Thirty years ago you could call it home if you just lived out of a truck, but they did away with that.) I greatly fear the day is soon coming when A.J. will become just another Sedona.

So here's to A.J. It's one great town!

"A.J.", a photographic chronicle, including 121 photographs, is available on an Autoplay CD (only $10.00, plus tax and $2 S&H = $12.87).